The Ring Of Life

The finest ring of them all, brings Life wherever it ends up. You may need its powers, but will you accept all that will be drawn to it?

This ring is green in colour, intense green, though may sometimes look a bit brownish, or take on hues of yellow or others. It is usually finely decorated with various leaf-patterns, which change over time. If rubbed it leaves some of its colour behind, so the fashion-challenged may not like it.

What is more interesting is the stuff it is from. Yes, it cannot be broken! No, it is not some mysterious metal. It resembles heavily a… used chewing gum. The material can be easily shaped, you can draw it out to fit any size of finger, and if you draw it too much, you must somehow shape it to fit your finger again. Or wait till it shrinks back, which takes at least a few hours. The ring often looks irregular.

While it can be stretched (probably) without limits, it gives its powers only if worn like rings are. Complicated situations may deform it, and thus you can loose its support. Its wearers sometimes carry a bigger ring over this one to keep it in shape.

Plot Hooks?

- Given enough time, the ring will turn almost any location into a jungle. Maybe it has done so, and some great forests, or indeed jungles have the ring at their heart.
- Maybe it gets stolen, or somehow removed and the local ecosystem starts to fall apart. Most druids and rangers will want to prevent this.
- Maybe you have to steal it. Perhaps a dark lord wants to weaken the wood-elves by weakening their woods first. Or some smart merchant wants to upgrade the local fauna and/or flora, thus getting more cash from it. Buying a piece of desert is cheap, having a great oasis there in just two or three years later, $$$ !
- Someone seeks a way to prolonged life, or perhaps a cure for some disease. Few would but pay the price for wearing it.
- If you want to storm a place with mighty undead creatures, this item may be really handy.

Anyway, travelling with the ring can be disgusting for the wearer, and dangerous for anyone in his company. Lunch while being swarmed by ants? Bon appetite!

History:

- It is said, that the goddess of Nature (THE personified Nature) wore this ring, and lost it somehow, or gave to someone to bring life into barren lands.
- It is said, that people destroyed the world and all life upon it, and the gods took pity for it. So they created this ring, to support and guard life. Should it ever be somehow destroyed, all the world’s life will slowly die!
- It is said, that the mightiest of druids created it, to protect their woods forever. Some of them may do anything to get it.

Magical Properties:

Grants a regenerative power of 2 HP / round. You may want to adjust this for your needs, but keep in mind this is a powerful artifact. Should undead try to wear it, they are damaged for twice the amount.

Hard to kill. If you are at a half of your hit points, all attacks cause you only half the damage. If at a third, only third of the damage, etc…

The wearer will look unnatural, for even in deep cuts his natural blood-flow continues as it should. Severe wounds cannot cause a limb to be lost, it still keeps holding on the skin. The ring partially protects him from pain, so he may well look immortal!

The wearer has always a deep and healthy sleep.

The wearer is immune to all natural poisons and toxins, and has a good bonus even against the magical ones. Similar is true for diseases, and the rings power will cure any. Lycanthropy may be an exception, and some wearers transformed into strange beasts that live in these lands.

The wearer is protected from special attacks of undead and other similar abilities, which try to drain his life’s force directly. The relevant undead are damaged, as if they tried to wear the ring.

Should the wearer be not an adult member of his species, he will grow to adulthood quite fast. Afterwards he gets older at a much slower rate, living up to twice or thrice his natural lifespan.

The ring can be anytime taken off. When (if) the wearer decides to abandon it, count the time he has spent wearing it. He will then grow twice as fast older for the same time, as he has worn it, the ring being a terrible burden on your life’s power.

Other Powers:
Any living being in a short radius regenerates at about 1/10th the speed of the wearer. Same as above is true for undead. All living beings around the ring grow up faster, but not older.

All living beings feel comfortable in the rings presence, and consider its wearer a nice person. Thus you not only find it in the middle of an extremely populated dungeon, all those beings will follow you around!

If escape into a wasteland and fall asleep, you will wake up with an assortment of local population. Scorpions, snakes, vultures and insects all like your company. And do not forget that grass grows faster, too.

Creatures attracted by the ring behave naturally, but will harm the wearer only should he harm them seriously. It may be risky to put the ring off, if the creatures would attack the wearer under normal conditions. Luckily, they do not feed upon the wearer, but can try on his companions.

Undead in turn do not like its presence, and the weaker ones will desperately avoid it, unless commanded otherwise.

Intelligent creatures will find your company nice, too. At first, that is! If you manage to get into a city, few will be happy if the whole sewers come out to greet you!

Creatures seem to breed faster, too. Bear in mind that the chance of mutations is slightly higher as usually…

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Excellent idea. I like the actual description of the ring and could use that alone. It is very powerful and, perhaps to make it easier to use in a campaing, I would pick and choose of all the described powers. Great idea with tons of options.

i know i am just typing my thoughts but this will be very useful for a npc i have given a uncurable condition that is slowly killing him. .....where am I? who are you? the shnoz berries taste like shnoz berries.

Well, it does emanate some of its power even when it is not worn by anyone, so I'd be careful even of wearing it around.

And yes, it is intended to be powerful, and unique... and bringing many, many complications with it. :) So be careful if you use it, and have the means prepared for getting rid of it. Worst case, you can still use it as a legend and tease your players with it's existence. ;)

I like the description of the item, and it sparked many thoughts for my campaign.

An additive thought on an alternate creation.
To Create/recharge it, it sucks the life-force from everything within miles, creating dead-zones, with small magically protected circles of life in the center.

This can be especially useful for a necromancer, or any evil villain wishing to start his own empire of abundance by destroying the neighboring empire to feed his. Like an Fantastic A-bomb of death and life. Use it against your enemy's armies. and bolster your crops.

Plot Hook - Zones of death have been appearing through out the countryside like crop circles. Nothing remains alive.

Personally, I see it as a godly artifact, a symbol of nature that doesn't need to be recharged in any way. But... if all things are balanced out, there will be less life somewhere else. You could create massive changes in the natural world, just by moving the ring.

This could wreck untold amounts of havoc on desert communities and those not used to a lush and verdant wilderness. A fun artifact to add if you wish to shake up your world a bit and change around the topography unexpectedly,

Link Backs

Temple of some malign being invites you warmly and offers help (curing,needed spell etc) for some minor sacrifice . Sacrifices must be everytime bigger to work - up to living inteligent creatures. Maybe you pay some other price,too...